Entrepreneurial efforts and opportunity costs: evidence from twitch streamers

With the rise of digital platforms, individuals' possibilities to generate income have increased drastically. In this context, we present digital content creation as a form of (digital) entrepreneurship that is characterized by potentially high but also uncertain revenues. As the cost structure of content creation mostly depends on opportunity costs, it stands in contrast to other popular platform-work options. We demonstrate how a stark and unexpected reduction in opportunity costs affects the actual decision to produce digital content. Exploiting the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we measure how individuals (streamers) who operate on a live streaming platform, respond to a sudden change in external factors while accounting for individual differences in initial conditions. We observe intensified efforts across the spectrum of streamers and find particularly strong reactions from newcomer streamers. We further show that only the most successful newcomers sustain their increased efforts even when opportunity costs start to rise again. Our results are consistent with the initial assumption that an individual's decision on taking up or intensifying entrepreneurial efforts on digital platforms is strongly affected by their opportunity costs. The results further imply that there is a large potential in individuals who might be willing to become entrepreneurs but are restricted by external conditions. As platform-based digital entrepreneurship offers high flexibility and very low entry barriers, measures for lowering opportunity costs could therefore help to unleash this potential. To maintain a steady influx of new talents, content platforms should increase their support for smaller creators and policymakers should provide easily accessible platforms to ease the way into entrepreneurship for these individuals. © 2023, The Author(s).

Teaching digital competences: a rural teaching perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges, where ICT has become a basic need for humanity, in this context the capacities of teachers to face changes were questioned. It has a mixed pre-experimental methodology, 49 teachers participated and a questionnaire, rubric and Pre-Test/Post Test were applied, with values of 0.890;0.91, Cronbach's 0.97. The findings showed that the dimensions, communication, content creation, were very high, while the security and problem-solving dimension turned out to be good. The research obtained significant results for the development of digital skills of teachers in Piura. © GKA Ediciones, authors.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Digital Competence A Case Study of Preservice Teacher Education Students in the Sultanate of Oman

The study looked into how COVID-19 affected the digital competence of a group of preservice teacher education students at a higher education institution in the Sultanate of Oman. The paper examined students' digital profile in five areas namely information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, digital content creation, safety and problem solving. Data from 32 undergraduate students was collected by utilizing DigComp, a European Commission digital skills self-assessment tool and findings from a survey. The digital competence framework measures the set of skills, knowledge and attitudes that describes what it means to be digitally competent. These skills are important for students to be effective global citizens in the 21st century. The results of the study revealed that the majority of the students scored Level 3 (Intermediate) in their self-assessment competency test score. The majority of the students perceived that their digital competence improved significantly as the result of online learning which was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The rationale of this investigation is that it helps educators understand the students' level of digital competence and the students' perspectives on ICT skills. In turn, it informs us the ways to monitor the students' digital progress and the next steps in developing their digital competency © 2023, International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications.All Rights Reserved.

Digital competence of teachers in terms of content creation: self-perception of teachers in educationalscientific training in Galicia (Spain)

The current health emergency, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has presented teachers at all levels of education with the challenge of online education, which, in many cases, has meant redesigning the teaching and learning process. In this context, teachers have had to develop, in record time, the necessary skills to continue teaching. Within this framework, a study has been presented on the self-perception a group of teachers in initial training in Galicia (Spain) have about their level of digital teaching competence, in general, and about their knowledge as professionals capable of creating educational digital content. For this purpose, an ad hoc questionnaire was developed, based on the Common Framework for Digital Competence in Teaching and the international frameworks of the International Society for Technology Education (ISTE) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), with the participation of students linked to educationalscientific subjects in the Early Childhood Education and Primary Education degrees at the University of Vigo during the academic year 2019-2020. The results of the study show a medium-low level in “digital competence” and in the sub-competence of “content creation”. In contrast, there is a very positive attitude towards the educational use of information and communication technologies (ICT). Furthermore, the results indicate that personal circumstances such as gender, age and the educational level of the subject’s mother may influence the future teachers’ perception of their knowledge, skills and attitudes towards ICT and the creation of digital content. © 2022, Educacao e Pesquisa. All Rights Reserved.

The Experience of Using a New e-Learning Tool in Architectural Studies

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the use of e-Learning technologies as an alternative to classical face-to-face teaching. Teachers have had to quickly adapt to virtual technologies and transform their material to online content in order to minimise the impact on students' education. In studies such as Architecture, where visual and graphical representations are fundamental, such an adaptation is challenging. The aim of this paper is to evaluate a new e-learning methodology in architectural studies by using SAPIENS, a specifically designed e-learning platform with content creation tools and automatic correction. This platform was used to create an e-learning course on building systems. To evaluate and measure the effectiveness and acceptance of the proposed methodology in architectural education, an experiment with 108 students was carried out. Participants were divided into two homogeneous groups, G1 and G2, and only G1 was given access to the e-learning platform to take the course. The results were obtained by means of pre- and posttesting and a questionnaire. Significant differences were found between pre- and posttest scores, and nearly significant differences were found between the posttest scores of G1 and G2. The mean of all questionnaire scores exceeded 3.5 on a five-point Likert scale except for one question. G1 rated better overall, and there were no significant differences by age, degree, subject or e-learning experience. Teacher's opinion was very satisfactory as well. Therefore, the proposed methodology, with high image interaction and adapted to all participant profiles, helps in the process of learning and is highly accepted by learners, specially those who are engaged.

Feasible Blackboard implementations, challenging blended learning through agile Academic Learning Management Systems in Transnational Higher Education

Blended learning is an adaptive (and necessary) response adopted by most universities to face the challenges posed by the COVID-19 ongoing pandemic. Academic Learning Management Systems (ALMSs) played a strategic and pivotal role under high pressure. Online learning can occur by implementing integrated solutions embedded in the Academic portals or subscriptions to other videoconferencing solutions. Blending online and face-to-face teaching proved challenging from different perspectives. This approach has been considered essential to ensure an adequate level of service and avoid outflows of students, but it led to increased teaching workload, improved infrastructure, flexible pedagogic approach, enhanced technologies, specific training, and IT solutions development. The authors perform a SWOT analysis of blended learning, in a transnational Higher Education Context, to match the findings with the most relevant and critical challenges. The results, therefore, support the Information System analysis, focusing on one of the most widespread ALMSs. The case of Blackboard is finally considered, and some implementations are suggested. © 2022 Association for Computing Machinery. All rights reserved.

Enhancing Digital Skills of Early Childhood Teachers Through Online Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math Training Programs in Estonia

Teacher professional development programs, including mid- and long-term Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math (STEAM) courses, have recently moved from in person learning at university premises to an online environment. Whether it is a temporary change in learning methods caused by the COVID-19 restrictions or whether it will become a new normal is currently under discussion in many teacher training institutions around the world. The aim of this study was to design and implement time- and money-saving synchronous online teacher training format for conducting co-design courses for early childhood teachers in the theme of STEAM integrated learning activities. Based on Tallinn University's curriculum of in-person training courses on the same topic, with the volume of 40 contact hours, we delivered the content in two different formats: in 11-months (as it used to be in pre-COVID period) and in 4-months, adapted to participants' needs. We used a self-assessment survey, based on DigCompEdu framework, to assess the increase of digital competences in the two formats. The long-format course had 31 participants and the short-format course had 50 participants. The assessment was based on pre- and post-test and we used structured live video presentations to let participants retrospectively describe their learning experiences. Results indicate that the participants of both courses had improved their digital competences and achieved the learning outcomes set by course content. There was no significant difference in increase of digital competences or the way the course was perceived between participants of both courses. This brings us to the cautious consideration that it is possible to achieve desired outcomes of STEAM courses even in a shorter period when conducting them online compared to the in-person courses. There is a need for further research where results from participants of in-person and online teaching courses are compared.

Development of virtual reality content for learning Japan Prehospital Trauma Evaluation and Care initial assessment procedures.

Aim: The Japan Prehospital Trauma Evaluation and Care (JPTEC) is a standardized educational program for prehospital trauma care in Japan. The initial assessment in the JPTEC course comprises a training segment that includes a 30-min session. Given the limited face-to-face training due to the coronavirus disease 2019, virtual reality (VR) content has become an alternative. However, creating VR content typically requires the assistance of expert technicians. We aimed to create VR content for the initial assessment segment of the JPTEC and verify its educational effectiveness. Methods: We created VR content for learning the initial assessment of the JPTEC using our easy-to-use VR content creation system. The participants played the VR content for 15 min. The number of times they "cleared" (i.e., made a correct decision and completed the initial assessment) was recorded every 5 min. Then, a JPTEC-certified instructor tested their practical skills through face-to-face simulation. Results: The authors had no specialized skills and created the VR content in 2 days. Fourteen students used the material. They cleared the scenario 3 (3-4) times in the first 5 min in 15 min, 5 (4-5) times in the second 5 min, and 5 (5-5) times in the third 5 min (P < 0.05). All participants passed the practical evaluation. Conclusion: A shorter VR training developed using our easy-to-use VR content creation system can replace the 30-min JPTEC session on the initial assessment. This system allows for the free and easy creation of VR content.

Fact-checking, fake news, propaganda, media bias, and the covid-19 infodemic

Social media have democratized content creation and have made it easy for anybody to spread information online. However, stripping traditional media from their gate-keeping role has left the public unprotected against biased, deceptive and disinformative content, which could now travel online at breaking-news speed and influence major public events. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new blending of medical and political disinformation has given rise to the first global infodemic. We offer an overview of the emerging and inter-connected research areas of fact-checking, disinformation, "fake news'', propaganda, and media bias detection. We explore the general fact-checking pipeline and important elements thereof such as check-worthiness estimation, spotting previously fact-checked claims, stance detection, source reliability estimation, detection of persuasion techniques, and detecting malicious users in social media. We also cover large-scale pre-trained language models, and the challenges and opportunities they offer for generating and for defending against neural fake news. Finally, we discuss the ongoing COVID-19 infodemic. © 2022 ACM.

How Advertising, the Most Powerful Tool of Marketing, Survived during and after COVID-19?

All over the World, COVID-19 has affected several industries economically. Most affected areas are especially heavy industries, logistics, services like tourism, and food beverage. All these industries are directly related to marketing communication and advertising. In this study, it is examined that how the different fields of marketing communication, such as advertising, digital marketing, retail advertising, and creative executions are affected by the COVID-19. How social media marketing affected? Was it positive or negative? Or, when it is considered that in the period of pandemia, how audiences consume the traditional media? Understanding all these issues is so essential to evaluate the situation of marketing communication, advertising, and digital marketing after COVID-19. So, to consider well;statistics, opinions of high-level professionals, numbers, qualitative differences are the main units of this chapter and discussed by presenting the different approaches from different countries, including Turkey. © Peter Lang GmbH. Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften. Berlin 2021. All rights reserved.